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URBANA – With cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad sparking violence overseas, members of the Central Illinois Mosque and Islamic Center Sunday invited community members to get to know them better.

"We decided to hold an open house soon after the publication of the Danish cartoons, the offensive misrepresentations of Muhammad," said Irfan Ahmad, outreach coordinator for the center. "We want to show people there are ways to address these issues peacefully and intellectually. The violence is being caused by less than 1 percent of Islam."

TUSCOLA – North Ward Elementary School in Tuscola is one of only 16 schools in the state to be nominated by the Illinois State Board of Education for the National No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon school program.

North Ward's students scored in the top 10 percent on state tests in reading and math.

Put a cutting board or something else flat in the bottom of your kitchen sink and turn on the faucet.

You should see a thin film of water in the rough circle that makes up the middle, a band of roiling, albeit miniature, rapids after that and finally a stretch where the puddle you've made flattens and flows with more or less even regularity.

University of Illinois officials and the Illinois Board of Higher Education praised Gov. Rod Blagojevich's budget on Wednesday and planned to praise it again at a House committee hearing this morning, but state lawmakers were somewhat less enthusiastic.

The state universities struck a deal with the governor's office in which he offered a 1.4 percent increase in state support and they agreed to endorse his controversial proposals to borrow $3.2 billion for construction projects and sell off at least part of the state's student loan portfolio.

The state's public universities would finally get an increase in state funding in the budget Gov. Rod Blagojevich unveiled today, including a much-needed boost for the University of Illinois.

Administration spokeswoman Becky Carroll confirmed on Tuesday that the governor's budget would contain a $40 million increase for higher education, enough to increase need-based Monetary Award Program grants by nearly $8 million and provide almost 1.5 percent more to universities than they got this year.

URBANA – From hat to toe, attendees of the Women's Club at the University of Illinois' Tuesday Tea were ready to party.

More than 60 members, ranging in age from 30s to pushing 90, gathered in Clark-Lindsey Village's activity room to celebrate the club's 100th year the way women celebrated back when the club first began. That the celebration took place on Valentine's Day just made the event a little sweeter.

CHAMPAIGN – Two Daily Illini editors were suspended from their jobs Tuesday after the paper received complaints about anti-Muslim cartoons.

Editor-in-chief Acton H. Gorton said the Daily Illini's publisher suspended him and the newspaper's opinions section editor, Charles Prochaska, for two weeks pending the outcome of an internal investigation.

URBANA – Looking both ways before you cross the street is the safe thing to do. So you've been told since you were 5.

Now, officials are trying to make it the hip thing to do. The University of Illinois and the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District are looking at getting students' attention in ways that don't make them sound like their mothers.